Harrison v. Carroll
| Decision Date | 20 December 1943 |
| Docket Number | 5142.,No. 5140,5140 |
| Citation | 139 F.2d 427 |
| Parties | HARRISON v. CARROLL. EMPLOYERS' LIABILITY ASSUR. CORPORATION, Limited, v. SAME. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit |
E. Walton Brown, of Danville, Va. (W. H. Rogers and Brown, Garrett & Bass, all of Danville, Va., on the brief), for appellants.
A. M. Aiken, of Danville, Va. (Aiken & Sanford, of Danville, Va., on the brief) for appellee.
Before PARKER, SOPER, and DOBIE, Circuit Judges.
These appeals are taken from judgments for the plaintiff administratrix in actions growing out of the wrongful death of R. H. T. Carroll, as the result of an automobile collision. A judgment for $12,500 was entered by the District Judge, sitting without a jury, against Henry Harrison, a minor, who was found to have charge of his mother's car at the time of the accident; and a judgment for $10,000 was entered against Employers' Liability Assurance Corporation, Ltd., which had issued a liability policy for that amount on the Harrison car, and was brought into the case by a third party complaint. See the opinion of the District Judge in Carroll v. Harrison, D.C., 49 F.Supp. 283.
The evidence furnished adequate support for the findings of the District Judge which are summarized in the recital of facts that appears herein. Mrs. Harrison and her son lived on a farm near Reidsville, North Carolina. As was her custom on Sundays, she loaned her automobile on the day of the accident to her son who was nineteen years of age and who invited three other boys to ride with him, one of whom was Robert Going. They drove to the neighborhood of Danville, Virginia, where they purchased liquor and became intoxicated. While in this condition Harrison and one of the boys got out of the car to get more liquor and Harrison permitted Going with the other boy to drive the car away to Danville to learn what plays were being shown at moving picture houses in the town and to return so that the party might decide what picture they wanted to see. At the time Going was intoxicated to Harrison's knowledge and not competent to drive the car; and on the way back from Danville a collision with another car was caused by Going's reckless driving, and the plaintiff's decedent and Going's companion were killed.
Under these circumstances we think that the judgment of the District Court was correct. Harrison, who had control of the car, permitted Going to drive it when he knew that Going was intoxicated and not competent to do so. In Crowell v. Duncan, 145 Va. 489, 134 S.E. 576, 50 A.L.R. 1425, it was held that the owner of an automobile, who knowingly entrusts it to one who is so incompetent by reason of intoxication as to convert it into a dangerous instrumentality, may be held liable for ensuing injuries. Similarly it is true that a custodian in charge of a car is responsible for the wrongful conduct of an incompetent person to whom the custodian knowingly entrusts the vehicle. See, Huddy on Automobiles, 5 Ed., § 292; Berry on Automobiles, 4 Ed., § 1144.
The minority of young Harrison presents no defense because the liability of an infant for his torts is well established not only in Virginia, where the accident took place, but generally in other jurisdictions. Fry v. Leslie, 87 Va. 269, 12 S.E. 671; Saum v. Coffelt, 79 Va. 510, 515; Cole v. Wagner, 197 N.C. 692, 150 S.E. 339, 71 A.L.R. 220; 27 Am.Jur., Infants, § 90. There are cases in states other than Virginia which go very far in holding that a minor is not liable for injuries caused in his absence by the negligent operation of an automobile within his control which he has entrusted to another, even though the car is being used at the time for the minor's purposes. Hodge v. Feiner, 338 Mo. 268, 90 S.W.2d 90, 103 A.L.R. 483, note. We need not stop to inquire whether these decisions limit the liability of an infant for tort unnecessarily and wrongfully by reading into the law of torts a restriction that pertains to the law of contracts, and frees him from responsibility for wrongful acts committed in the course of conduct undertaken for...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Brand Distributors, Inc. v. Insurance Co. of No. Am.
...Casualty Co. v. Wendlinger, 146 F.2d 984, 989 (4th Cir. 1944), cert. denied 324 U.S. 882, 65 S.Ct. 1029, 89 L.Ed. 1432; Harrison v. Carroll, 139 F. 2d 427 (4th Cir. 1943); Farmer v. Fidelity & Casualty Co., 249 F.2d 185 (4th Cir. 1957); United Services Life Ins. Co. v. Moss, 303 F.Supp. 72 ......
-
Boland v. Love
...an unfit driver likely to cause injury to others." McNeill v. Spindler, 1950, 191 Va. 685, 62 S.E.2d 13, 16. See also, Harrison v. Carroll, 4 Cir., 1943, 139 F.2d 427, 428. Virginia by statute, § 46-384, Michie's Code of Virginia, 1950, has provided: "No person shall authorize or knowingly ......
-
Lumsden v. U.S.
...negligent entrustor is the entity with the actual custody, possession or control of the instrumentality. See, e.g., Harrison v. Carroll, 139 F.2d 427 (4th Cir. 1943) (the custodian of owner's vehicle could be liable under Virginia law for injuries resulting from custodian's negligent entrus......
-
Payne v. Kinder
...P. 6, 36 A.L.R. 1132; Crockett v. United States, 116 F.2d 646, certiorari denied, 314 U.S. 619, 62 S.Ct. 57, 86 L.Ed. 498; Harrison v. Carroll, 4 Cir., 139 F.2d 427; 60 C.J.S., Motor Vehicles § 444; Annotation II, 168 A.L.R. 1365, and the many cases from different jurisdictions there In Jen......